Muslim Charity raises £170,000 for British people in need across Manchester and London during Ramadan

Human Appeal, a Muslim faith-based humanitarian aid charity based in Greater Manchester, has raised nearly £170,000 for British people in need of support and aid during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. The beneficiaries will include the victims of the Manchester attacks, the victims of the Grenfell Tower Fire and homeless people.

Human Appeal chief executive, Othman Moqbel, said:

“For British Muslims, Ramadan is the most important month of the year and when Muslims are at their most generous. And we, as the fastest growing British Muslim charity, are determined to spread our generosity with those in need here at home. If there is poverty on the streets of Mosul or Manchester, Human Appeal are there to help. If there is death and destruction in East Aleppo or West London, Human Appeal are there to help. Wherever you are, whatever your faith, in your hour of need, Human Appeal are there to help.“This Ramadan has seen a lot of tragedy and, here in the UK, we have seen acts of hatred attempting to cause division in our society. We at Human Appeal are British Muslims determined to meet every act of hate with 170,000 acts of love.”

Samra Said, Human Appeal’s UK Domestic Programme Manager, said:

“For Muslim charities, Ramadan is the busiest time of year, we get approximately 50% of our annual donations from the public during the month of Ramadan – this Ramadan we have managed to raise more than ever before for people in need of help here in the UK.”

The projects Human Appeal have conducted or plan to conduct during Ramadan, which started on Friday 26th May and is expected to finish on Friday 24th June, are as follows:

“Muslims for Manchester”

Amount raised at time of writing is £28,134.Human Appeal responded to the terrorist attack on the Manchester Arena on 22ndMay by starting the “Muslims for Manchester” fund.

Human Appeal collected funds for the victims of the Manchester terrorist attack on behalf of the British Muslim community. The funds will go towards the funeral costs of the victims and medical costs of the survivors. The link to the page is here: https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/muslimsformanchester

Grenfell Tower Fire

Amount of money banked at time of writing is £81,825 + approx. £31,500 in pledged donations + approx. £5,000 worth of in kind donations

Human Appeal helped provide water, provision of supplies, sorting donations, unified live appeal fundraiser and worked in coalition with Islamic Relief, Muslim Aid and National Zakat Foundation under Grenfell Muslim Response Unit to meet the needs of all families and any victims of the Grenfell Tower fire.

We have together provided cash grants to families after needs assessments, provision of therapists/doctors/translators, legal representation and food. Human Appeal staff have also acted as translators for Arabic and Somali survivors.

Human Appeal raised £10,000 to run this project and it will take place on Saturday the 24th June. In the UK, 8.4 million people, the equivalent population of London, are struggling to afford to eat. This Ramadan, Human Appeal are partnering with UK food redistribution charity, FareShare to provide food to over 400 charities in London and Greater Manchester.

These charities and community groups will use the food donated to cook up a nutritious meal to be shared with 9,000 beneficiaries. Over 60 volunteers will help to pack the trays of food to go out to these charities and to write messages of hope and thanks to those helping to prepare and share the meal. The food will go to hostels for the homeless, rehabilitation centres, children’s lunch and holiday clubs, lunch clubs for the elderly, community centres and refuges for survivors of domestic abuse.

Human Appeal raised £10,000 to donate to Street Support to help provide services across Greater Manchester.

This Ramadan, Human Appeal and Street Support have helped 80 organisations in Greater Manchester dedicated to supporting vulnerable homeless people. With nearly 3,300 people currently homeless in Greater Manchester, there is much work to do. Street Support is a central online resource around homelessness to make it easier for people who are homeless to get the help they need.

Human Appeal raised £1,000. In partnership with Sufra-NW London, over 60 volunteers cooked a whopping 506 meals on Saturday 17th June which was disturbed to disadvantaged families in London suffering from food poverty.

The approximate total amount of aid delivered or to be delivered to people throughout the UK from Human Appeal projects this Ramadan is, at the time of writing, £167,459.77 however both the Greenfell Fire and Muslims for Manchester are still actively fundraising and there will be potentially be more funds raised for other domestic projects.